Fed's say Large Commercial Office Tower served as Cash cow for Iran (globeSt.com) 
On Nov. 12, officials from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York took legal steps to seize nonprofit Alavi Foundation's 60% ownership stake in the 36-story 650 Fifth Ave. commercial office tower, known as the Piaget Building. The government says Alavi Foundation, through a partnership with Assa Corp. called 650 Fifth Avenue Co., served as a front or shell-company, funneling revenue from the Midtown building through Bank Melli of Iran, and then onto Iranian government officials. ...
....Alavi Foundation attorney John Winter tells GlobeSt.com his client is "disappointed in the government's actions. The foundation had been cooperating with the government for the better part of a year, responding to various questions that the government had put to the foundation." He adds, "The foundation intends to litigate this matters, and expects to prevail in the end," says Winter.
As for the government's sense of timing, Winter says "we are not going to speculate as to the government's intentions, motives or timing." However, as to the case's eventual outcome, he says he suspects the litigation will be "protracted."
For now, business at 650 Fifth can go as it has for the past three decades, according to an official statement from a spokeswoman at the US Attorney's office who says "tenants and occupants remain free to use the properties as they did before" the filing. She says there are "no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants."
But it's hard to ignore the government's civil complaint, which paints a portrait of glaring deceit and intrigue more worthy of a James Bond movie than a real estate website. Spokesmen for the Treasury or Justice Department would not speak directly to the case, nor did they recall similar actions toward a large commercial property, instead they referred GlobeSt.com back to the US Attorney's office, which declined to offer more details than those contained in the complaint. Further, most real estate players were not willing to discuss any potential repercussions associated with the case.
Full Text link below at www.globeSt.com
http://www.globest.com/news
/1543_1543/newyork/182316-1
.html
